Beauty Q&A: Are shampoos for colored hair different than regular shampoos?

byThe Beauty BrainsonJanuary 23, 2010

Arlene Asks…I have been noticing lately that shampoos are made for different hair colors. Such as John Frieda and Pantene Pro-V Expressions. How are these shampoos any different from regular shampoos and do they really work?

The Right Brain’s Rapidly Written Response:

The trend toward different shampoo formulas for different hair colors appears to be entirely marketing driven. We have not seen any shampoo technology that is better for one color versus another.

Color confusion

The major manufacturers, Frieda and Pantene included, are taking their state of the art shampoo formulas and adding a bit of dye to them to correspond to the hair color they are marketing toward. If it’s a Bleach Blonde product, they add a little yellow dye. If it’s Pantene Expressions for Brunettes they add a brown or reddish brown.

Read the claims carefully – most of these products don’t claim to ADD any color to your hair. They just say things like “Helps enhance depth and richness for multi-dimensional shine.” And that much is true, these products will keep your hair color looking deep and rich by virtue of the fact that they are proving some conditioning to the hair which keeps the hair looking and feeling better. But these formulas do NOT make the color darker or last longer – if nothing else, your roots will still grow out at the same rate.

The Beauty Brains bottom line:

Both of these manufacturers make high quality products that can make your hair better but don’t buy them because you think they’ll make your hair color better.